For "Danny J" is in fact Corporal Daniel James, the soldier accused of spying for Iran while working as intrepreter and aide to General David Richards, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Last night military officials were anxiously reviewing the vetting procedures the Iranian-born former painter and decorator, salsa teacher, club owner and part-time soldier passed through to be given a role beside one of Britain's most senior Army officers.

The 44-year-old is said to have passed secrets of military operations in Afghanistan to a "foreign power" and enemy.

He was charged by Scotland Yard officers on Monday in the name of Daniel James - but the Daily Mail can reveal it was as Esmail "Essi" Gamasai that he came to Britain from Iran following the revolution there that saw the Shah overthrown in 1979.

It was in that name that he married in 1982 Paniyota Haralambous, from Greece. They had a child five years later, Gino Essi Gamasai, but the couple split up when Gino was around four or five and his ex-wife too now uses another name. According to neighbours, the couple now have little to do with one another.

The reason for Gamasai's decision to change his name in the 1990s is unknown but it was as "Danny J", the confident 5ft 6in singlet wearing dance teacher that he became known in the nightclubs of Brighton.

To those he taught at the New York club in Brighton's Dyke Road, he never betrayed his Iranian backround telling the students who paid £5 a hour he was "Cuban."

Former pupils recalled yesterday how he "loved himself and loved his body", regularly working out in the weights room of the David Lloyd centre on Brighton's marina and driving a fast car.

The gym is a short walk from the two substantial townhouses James owns in an affluent area of Brighton. He lives in the ground floor flat of one house which is sub-divided into three with a complementary therapist's practice Natural Health Solutions, on the top floor.

The next door house is divided in two, a home to a young professional and some Spanish and Brazilian students. The combined value of the properties is put at £800,000.

One neighbour said: "I saw him five days ago and he seemed perfectly normal and happy. He came round to fix the plumbing. I sometimes see him in his army gear and he's always very friendly."

Mr James's front door has a CCTV camera attached to it which films all visitors.

After the 9/11 carnage in New York and Washington and the involvement of British forces in war on terror - in particular Afghanistan - that James's life changed as he was identified as an "asset" for the region by the military.

Like their American counterparts, British forces were desperate for service personnel who spoke the languages of the region. It was an area of considerable shortages and thousands of military records were scanned for those with the right talents. In the entire UK Armed Forces, there are only five personnel registered as fluent in Pashtun, Afghanistan's main language.

Daniel James, an experienced noncommissioned officer and Territorial Army infantryman with more than ten years' service, ticked the right boxes.

He was tried and trusted, having worked closely with the Intelligence Corps which provides information for, among others, British Special Forces. He had been security vetted - and cleared.

Most importantly, he spoke Farsi, his mother's native tongue, and Pashtun. The fact that he had been born and educated in Iran and left for

Britain after the revolution was deemed an advantage.

As interpreter and aide to General Richards, James is said to have had the "ear" of the British commander of Nato's 31,000 forces in Afghanistan and was a key link with the Afghans and their tribal leaders.

Based at Nato headquarters in the Afghan capital Kabul, he was with General Richards during hugely sensitive meetings with those leaders and on hand to translate documents and letters as they were produced.

Crucially, he was also able to interpret the mood of the meetings and of the Afghan people.

James was quoted in the Armed Forces magazine Bulletin in July, talking about the impact on Afghans of someone speaking their language.

"Any verbal contact is better than no contact," he said. "Patrols help civilians see troops in a good light. If you see a strange man with a gun, you automatically see him as hostile.

"If he smiles and asks you how you are doing or for directions, you will think differently of him. Nine out of ten people start treating me as one of their own and actually help as much as they possibly can with information when I speak their native language."

James is said to have been with General Richards and his headquarters staff in Kabul earlier this month and was arrested by Scotland Yard on Monday after returning to Britain.

Computer and telephone records together with e-mail traffic are being checked by MI5's counter-espionage section.

The £28,000-a-year soldier faced City of Westminster magistrates on Wednesday charged under the 1911 Official Secrets Act with "prejudicing the safety of the state" by passing information "calculated to be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy".

The charges are the most serious possible and if a trial goes ahead it will be the first prosecution under Section One of the Act for more than 20 years.

The charges suggest breaches of security involving highly-restricted material. They accuse James of communicating with a "foreign power" on November 2 this year. Much of the two-hour proceedings in court were held in camera because of the possibility that the evidence would prejudice national security. James was remanded until December 27. The last person charged under Section 1 of the 1911 Official Secrets Act was MI5 officer Michael Bettany, jailed for 23 years in 1984 for passing information to the Soviet Union.

James's arrest and the accusation that he spied on behalf of Iran, Afghanistan's neighbour and a country charged by Britain and the U.S. with supporting insurgents, has sent shock waves through Kabul, London and Washington.

The Americans are said to be furious at the possibility of a spy operating so close to the heart of Nato's headquarters at a time when the Taliban has been posing its biggest and most persistent threat since it was driven from Afghanistan after 9/11.

The case has similarities to that of former Army officer Major Milos Stankovic, who was arrested in 1997 under the Official Secrets Act.

A member of the Parachute Regiment, he was an aide to United Nations commanders in Sarajevo and was suspected of passing secrets to the Bosnian Serbs.

Stankovic, who was awarded an MBE for his work in Bosnia, remained under investigation for three-andahalf years but was never charged. He is currently suing the Ministry of Defence for wrongful arrest.